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Theme of violence and cruelty in Wuthering Heights
Theme of revenge in Wuthering Heights
Theme of revenge in Wuthering Heights
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Written in a period of emerging writing genres, Emily Bronte used Gothicism to develop aspects of Wuthering Heights. According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, the Gothic writing style is of or relating to a style of writing that describes strange or frightening events that happen in mysterious places. While that definition does not begin to encase all parts of the Gothic writing style, it does deeply reflect much of the theme in Wuthering Heights. Gothicism is present through violence, revenge, death, and superstition. These themes have determined the course of the plot allowing Emily Bronte to successfully represent Gothicism. The mood of Gothicism links events and people together (Gregor 5) creating an unique work of gothic literature.
Violence is very prominent within Wuthering Heights. In the very beginning of the book, we see Mr. Lockwood being attacked by Heathcliff’s dog while Heathcliff does not respond with urgency and allows it to happen. After this frightful experience, he gets sick and desires company. Nelly stays by his side and is the one who informs him of the troublesome and deeply violent past of the manor. Throughout the book she reveals a long history starting with Heathcliff. Heathcliff is the cause of many violent arguments in the book that fuel the plot and allow it to move forward. It seems as if violence in this book is not limited to arguments and attacks. It is also subject to physical and domestic violence.
Regarding the events of Wuthering Heights, alongside the tragic love stories, there appears to be a revenge plot supplementing them. What separates Wuthering Heights from books like Romeo and Juliet is the characters constant need for revenge. If revenge was absent in the book, it would b...
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...d Death in Wuthering Heights. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Kentucky Virtual Library. Web. 16 Nov. 2013. .
Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights. London: Thomas Cautley Newby, 1847. Print.
Gregor, Ian. The Brontës; a Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1970. Print.
Shaw, Harry. Dictionary of Literary Terms. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1972. Print.
Williams, Anne. Natural Supernaturalism in Wuthering Heights. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Kentucky Virtual Library. Web. 16 Nov. 2013. .
In a place where law and social rules do not seem to apply due to isolation from society, childish and primitive instincts begin to be unrepressed, with wilder acts of violence showing savage emotions and actions in order to fulfill desires. As McKinstry claims, the characters are living in a world where “fantasy and desire overcome adult laws of reality and order” (McKinstry 142). This isolated environment leads to many acts of socially intolerable violence, such as physical harming of others and the putting of more helpless lives in danger. Unacceptable cruelty is apparent from the very beginning of the novel, when Heathcliff is first brought to the Earnshaw manor and is treated as an inferior being by being called “it” by Nelly and…… One of the most absurd examples of this is when Hindley is retrieving Hareton from Nelly during one of his common drunken o...
Gothic Literature is a literary genre that combines the elements of fiction and the ideas that is related to horror, death, or supernatural. Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” is a good example of Gothic literature because it contains the elements of this literary genre, and one of them is the bleak setting of the story. An example of this in
In the novel Wuthering Heights, author Emily Brontë portrays the morally ambiguous character of Heathcliff through his neglected upbringing, cruel motives, and vengeful actions.
At Gateshead Jane Eyre grew up with her malicious cousins and Aunt. This fictitious location is placed in a part of England north to London. The name Gateshead has significant meaning in the book. This location was the “gateway” to the rest of the world. Also, this is where Jane grew up, so evidentially it was the “head” or beginning of all her tribulations in life. Throughout the rest of the book, all that Jane has to deal with is linked back to her childhood there at Gateshead. Abused verbally and physically by her Aunt and cousins, Jane felt an outsider among her kinsmen. She was ostracized by Aunt Reed from the rest of the family. At one point when her Aunt became extremely oppressive, she locked adolescent Jane into the dreaded “red room”, where Mr. Reed had died. She was frightened that his spirit haunted the room. Jane clearly describes how she feels when saying, “…I lifted my head and tried to look boldly round the dark room: at that moment a light gleamed on the wall. Was it, I asked myself, a ray from the moon penetrating some aperture I the blind? No; moonlight was still, and this stirred: while I gazed, it glided up to the ceiling and quivered over my heard… I thought the swift-darting beam was a herald of some coming vision from another world. My heart beat thick, my head grew hot…I was oppressed, suffocated: endurance broke down-I uttered a wild, involuntary cry-I rushed to the door and shook the lock in desperate effort.” (Bronte 17-18) Once Bessie came to rescue Jane’s, Aunt Reed to decided maliciously punish her for crying out and even went to say, “Let her go…loose Bessie’s hand child: you cannot succeed in getting out by these means, be assured. I abhor artifice, particularly in children; it is my duty to s...
“All children mythologize their birth. It is a universal trait. You want to know someone? Heart, mind, and soul? Ask him to tell you about when he was born. What you get won’t be the truth; it will be a story. And nothing is more telling than a story.” – Vida Winter, Tales of Change and Desperation (Setterfield). The two novels The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield, and Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte were written decades apart, yet they have similar elements. Wuthering Heights is a work of gothic fiction with some Victorian elements as well. Being that the two novels are so similar is it plausible that The Thirteenth Tale could be considered gothic fiction. It seems to fall under that category. They both use techniques such as the supernatural, family curses, mystery, madness, secrets, confused identities, lies, and half-truths (Ryan). The techniques of narration and establishing setting are similar in The Thirteenth Tale and Wuthering Heights.
Wuthering Heights seems to be a series of destructive decisions. Heathcliff and Catherine never achieve a life of happiness together; their actions cannot lead to a blissful ending. The other characters are guilty of creating their own strife, whether from personal faults or lack of wisdom. In a way, Emily Bronte’s ability to weave flaws into each person’s character lends a sense of reality or humanness to the novel; no one is seen as entirely good or bad. Without lecturing her readers, Bronte demonstrates just how regrettable succumbing to impulses can be. I realized while reading that even though their lives have an aspect of romance, I would never want to live the way that they did.
Gothic storytelling is a form of writing that usually includes horror, death, and romance. People write gothic style for the thrill of having a little bit of scariness in their story. Gothic style can be shown through the imagery and themes. The Fall of the House of Usher and Crimson Peak are two stories that show gothic writing though the imagery of the houses and supernatural.
The characters turn to violence when they feel anger, grief, betrayal, passion and other strong feelings. The use of violence in Wuthering Heights is not used to shock people. It is an essential theme in the novel and it is vital to the characters personalities that they use violence to express their emotions.
Varghese, Dr. Lata Marina. "Stylistic Analysis of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights." IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science 2.5 (2012): 46-50. Print.
Although these two films have very different ideas and structure, while Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is dealing with a supernatural beast along with an intertwining love story, and Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights is dealing with a plot of passion and love shown through the multiple love triangles throughout the film. It can be said that both share many of the same elements which are all part of the gothic genre. These elements include Byronic hero characters and traits, the use of camera techniques, and metonymy. Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights is comparable, and in the end similar to, the archetype for the gothic genre; Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
Wuthering Heights, written by Emily Bronte, has 323 pages. The genre of Wuthering Heights is realistic fiction, and it is a romantic novel. The book is available in the school library, but it was bought at Barnes and Nobles. The author’s purpose of writing Wuthering Heights is to describe a twisted and dark romance story. Thus, the author conveys the theme of one of life’s absolute truths: love is pain. In addition, the mood of the book is melancholy and tumultuous. Lastly, the single most important incident of the book is when Heathcliff arrives to Edgar Linton’s residence in the Granges unannounced to see Catherine’s state of health. Heathcliff’s single visit overwhelmed Catherine to the point of death.
While Bronte rarely uses the word gothic, her descriptions of Thornfield and the odd occurrences that happened there certainly lend it to this style. Jane first encounters this upon her arrival at Thornfield. After traversing a long driveway, her attention is drawn to one single solitary candlelight shining through a window, while the rest of the large mansion remains dark and still as if void of all life. This apparent lifelessness sets the theme in the readers’ mind of what the mansion has set in store for them, both in looks and actions. Before arriving, a church on the side of the road draws Jane’s attention.
In the novel Wuthering Heights, a story about love that has turned into obsession, Emily Bronte manipulates the desolate setting and dynamic characters to examine the self-destructive pain of compulsion. Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights is a novel about lives that are intertwined with one another. All the characters in this novel are commingled in their relationships with Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange.
The authorship of Wuthering Heights was an element of much discussion by critics. They believed the work to be the efforts of an inexperienced and unpracticed writer. The critical reviews, in my opinion, would have expressed even harsher judgments had it been commonly known that the author was in fact a young woman. “In Wuthering Heights, the reader is shocked, disgusted, almost sickened by details of cruelty, inhumanity, and the most diabolical hate and vengeance…”(Douglas, WH p. 302). Had this particular critic been aware of the author’s true identity, his barely concealed dislike for the work would have had no constraint.
Emily Bronte’s, Wuthering Heights, includes the struggle for happiness, like marry like, and revenge. Heathcliff grew up neglected and abused. When he fell in love with his long time friend, Catherine Earnshaw, she betrayed him by choosing another man over him, causing Heathcliff to become bitter and rude to everyone who comes in contact with him. He goes out of his way to make everyone miserable and unhappy just like himself. Although the perspective of Heathcliff is seen as “a mad man,” he is actually suffering from Antisocial Personality Disorder, Conduct Disorder, and Depression.